Rikers Island...Daniel Genis gives us the inside story on being on the inside

To improve investigations of jail violence, the Bronx district attorney’s office now has a team of prosecutors working out of a double-wide trailer on Rikers Island. THINGS HAVE CHANGED AT RIKERS, AND DANIEL GENIS DISCUSSRS THOSE CHANGES WITH THE TRUE CRIME CREW AT TRUE CRIME UNCENSORED

The surprise was not that inmates were arrested after an attack on a correction captain on Rikers Island. It was how many were charged — 15 prisoners in all, even though just three had laid hands on the captain.

Bronx prosecutors, using surveillance video and other evidence from the Thanksgiving Day attack, had determined that a dozen other inmates — all members of the Bloods prison gang — conspired to ambush the captain and to block other officers from coming to his aid.

In just a couple of weeks, the 15 inmates had been indicted by a grand jury.

That prosecutors were able to assemble evidence and obtain an indictment so quickly marks a big change from the past, when many investigations at Rikers bogged down in the logistics of doing interviews and collecting physical evidence inside one of the nation’s largest jails.

Now, a team of a dozen prosecutors and two investigators is stationed on the island inside the New York City jail complex, working out of a gray double-wide trailer.

The Bronx district attorney, Darcel D. Clark, opened the bureau in September 2016 to handle crimes by inmates, fulfilling a campaign promise and addressing a longstanding demand by the union representing correction officers.